Big Drop

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We are CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS who elevate BRANDS

BigDrop Inc is a design and development firm that specializes in bespoke digital solutions for brands of all sizes.Your identity is a reflection of your company and much thought and effort needs to be put into your presentation. The current generation revolves around the web as primary means to run your business, serve your clients, and communicate your branded message to the World.

Through careful consultations, we can find out what your taste is, whether it is a simple informational or a lavish multimedia site. As a creative workforce, we produce design experiences that entertain, inspire, satisfy and challenge our clients and their patrons. We help enable your market to see the "glow" of your organization and increase prospects from being one-time visitors to regular consumers.

Big Drop built a WordPress website, managing design/development and creating a Q&A section for the front page. One of the key features is the checkout system for a product that has thousands of configurations.

The Reviewer

1-10 Employees

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Joseph Rogers

Owner, 3 Speed Holster

Verified

the reviewer

Owner, 3 Speed Holster

Joseph Rogers

Consumer Goods

1-10 Employees

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Verified

5.0

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

5.0

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"They have a top-level team and I can't imagine that anyone can be better."

Mar 09, 2018

The Review

Feedback summary:

As soon as the site was launched, the number of sales quadrupled, while the new checkout system enables customers to easily build their own product. Highly professional and responsive, they went above and beyond to understand the business and delivered a top-notch product.

the review

I'm the owner of a concealed carry holster company. We have one location where we manufacture and sell holsters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking for a company to design a website for us. Since it's an unusual product, our biggest challenge was to develop a checkout system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a WordPress website for me and developed an outstanding front page where they presented everything my customers need to know. They researched my business and went above and beyond to understand my product. The website has answers to all the common questions. When I go over those questions with my customers on the phone, 100% of them make a purchase, so putting the key points on the website was a genius move. Setting up the checkout system was a complex process because our holsters have thousands of configurations–different measurements and colors–for guns and lasers, but they did an excellent job.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the design team and the development team.

How did you come to work with them?

I've been doing research for years, looking for the right company to build my website. After talking to Big Drop, I trusted them to create a functional website and take care of the aesthetic side

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $46,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from June 2017–January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

During the year before the website launch, I slowly dropped advertising in anticipation of better returns on ad investment. By the time of launch in January 2018, traffic was at its bare minimum, as were sales. At the first day of the launch, sales instantly quadrupled! The new checkout system makes it fun for customers to buy my products.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing. I wrote them a personal thank you note. Whenever I asked a question, they always knew the answer to it. They were extremely responsive and addressed any issues or bugs immediately. I also wrote a public review on Google commending them on their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a top-level team and I can't imagine that anyone can be better.

After moving over to Big Drop’s platform, they enhanced the website with more resources and an overhaul to make it more user-friendly. They also added new content and splash screens.

The Reviewer

201-500 Employees

Sunrise, Florida

VP Operations, Insurance Company

Verified

the reviewer

VP Operations, Insurance Company

Insurance

201-500 Employees

Sunrise, Florida

Verified

4.0

Quality:

4.0

Schedule:

5.0

Cost:

4.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

“It's a one-stop shop, and I appreciate their expertise.”

Nov 16, 2017

The Review

Feedback summary:

This professional team helped to prepare the website for heavy demand by adding resources, supporting its functionality and keeping customers happy and informed. With a wide range of skills, Big Drop offers a broad variety of services combined with excellent customer service.

We were looking to address our scalability and redundancy. We were also looking for graphic design and marketing expertise. We wanted a hosted solution to manage our growing insurance companies. In order to be responsive to hurricanes in Florida, we need important touch points for our customers available 24/7, such as uptime and claim report functionality. A local vendor managed our website for the past 5 years, but our organization grew rapidly in that time. We needed a more reliable, redundant, and scalable platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The objective was to first move our existing platform from the old vendor to Big Drop. Once that was completed, we added resources, cleaned the webpage, made it more user-friendly, and found nuances that we could improve upon. Since they absorbed the web page, they updated website content and added splash screens. A lot of their work was behind the scenes.

We're currently speaking with them about designing an entirely new skin for the website's look, feel, and user experience. They also offer other marketing services that I'm exploring as well.

What is the team dynamic?

I've communicated with at least 4 individuals at Big Drop who have addressed the project needs.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We had a list of criteria that a new vendor must have to bring us to the next level such as best practices, scalability, and backups. Big Drop met all of our requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

When Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the website had a surge of visits. Pre-landfall, we made sure Big Drop added resources to our website. It was amazing how many individuals went to that webpage, filed a claim, or made sure their insurance was up to date, etc.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. They're methodical; they schedule and follow through. They're a professional firm.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I love that they offer multiple services. They can host a website and manage it, but they also do marketing spins, social media, and graphic design. It's a one-stop shop, and I appreciate their expertise. Their attentiveness to requests and follow through shine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I have nothing negative to say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know that you're in good hands. They're experts at their trade. It was refreshing and all positive. Do your research and get comparable quotes. We enjoyed the experience.

4.0

Overall Score

5.0Scheduling

ON TIME / DEADLINES

They've never missed a deadline yet.

4.0Cost

Value / within estimates

They're in range with the other quotes we had. They're slightly more expensive, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

4.0Quality

Service & deliverables

It could always improve. Everyone can get better at anything they do.

5.0NPS

Willing to refer

There are always areas to improve regardless of the circumstances, but I would recommend them.

the review

I’m the CEO of the Financial Communication Society, which is a national not-for-profit trade association for financial marketers. We’ve been in business since 1967; our business model is that we run content-driven live events that bring together financial marketers and their industry partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

One of the critical things for our business model is having a highly functioning website. About three years ago, we started trying to bring our website into the 21st century and engaged a web firm out of Chicago. We got an okay-looking website out of it, but we never went a full week without there being some sort of issue. After about a year and a half, I got a cue from the board to spend money on finding a new agency and improving that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a relatively complicated website. Because we sell tickets to our various events there’s an e-commerce component, but we layer on top of that a subscription model. If you’re a dues-paying member, then you get discounted pricing on all of our events. Those two things working together creates a relatively complicated background for the websites. Wordpress, which had been our platform of choice, wasn’t able to deal with our needs. On January 23rd, we launched the website. They had to deal with the incumbent agency who lost the job, and they were really good with that. Very smooth transition. Knock on wood, we haven’t had a single problem. Granted, it’s still a little early in the game, but we’ve done four events so far and we haven’t had one issue. What we built is incredibly well received by our members.

We went into this identifying some improvements on design and navigation and functionality, but Big Drop really gave us so many additional ideas on how to make it a more valuable tool for our members. An example of that was that we now offer members a dashboard where they can go in and see all of their prior purchases, print out receipts, download spreadsheets of their purchases. They created a member directory so you can see people’s photos. These were things we hadn’t thought were possible. They created a user experience that’s very smart and reasonable.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We did an agency search. The agency that had designed our previous website was in the mix, but they frankly couldn’t convince us that they suddenly knew how to fix things and deal with our complicated needs. So we wound up speaking with nine agencies. One came back to us and said they didn’t think we had enough money to afford them, thank you very much. Another one was a one-man shop, which we dismissed out of hand. The other seven had project estimates ranging from $17,000 to &170,000. We got rid of the outliers and wound up speaking with three who were middle-of-the-road.

Based on in-person interviews, we decided to go with Big Drop. From their initial conversation, they simply brought so many additional ideas to the table. We didn’t even think that we were looking for that, but we were very impressed. They also gave us a very high level of confidence that they would be able to build what we need and most importantly, maintain it. That’s exactly what we did.

How much have you invested with BigDrop?

Their initial bid was in the $40,000-$60,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started negotiating late last year, but we went into review in early 2016. We hired them in June or July. They’re still supporting the site, but it’s live.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I trust them: I know that I go to bed at night and I’m not going to wake up in the morning with some user sending me an email saying that the website is down or they can’t log in, which is the experience I had with the prior agency. I couldn’t go a week without some snafu. I have a very high level of confidence with Big Drop. As part of their maintenance package, they have all of these alerts built in, which have not been triggered. If something were to go wrong on the Big Drop site, I’m confident they’re going to know about it before a user comes and tells me.

What did you find most impressive about Big Drop?

We might suggest something and they will always keep us straight about what’s the best practice in the industry. A lot of their back-office stuff is overseas, and that was a concern for us because of time zones. That hasn’t been an issue at all. I’m in New York, and when I’ve asked for East Coast time zone support, it’s always been there.

I have been able to take advantage of the seven-hour difference with the development guys, because I’ll send them a list of things that I want to be updated or changed, and I know that when I come into the office the next day, all of those things are taken care of. We jump on phone calls all the time – when it’s needed – and they’re very receptive. The maintenance package I pay is less than the retainer I paid at the prior agency, which frankly moaned each month about how we were spending more hours each month than what their retainer covered.

Are there any areas Big Drop could improve?

There have been times where they’ve written a little web text or email communication where the American English was not perfect. Part of it was that I should have been doing that writing, but that’s one thing I’ll ding them for.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Big Drop?

After I engaged with them, I went through a series of project managers. The first one sets the stage. In our case, she worked with us to figure out exactly what we wanted to build. Once she had that mapped out, she brought in a design manager who worked out how it should look. He built the wireframes. And then ultimately there was the development project manager who figured out how to code everything. If I were to do this all again, I would want the development person and the design person to sit in the very first meeting so that when I described my dream product, those things would happen. Sometimes I thought of stuff that ultimately wasn’t going to make sense, and it would have been better to learn that early on. It wouldn’t have changed anything either in the pricing or the timing; it would have just managed my expectations a little bit. Likewise, there was much more that they brought to the table than they would have taken off my wish list, and if I had their input earlier on, I probably could have maximized the experience a little more. This is in no way a negative; I’ve just learned a more optimal way to get more out of Big Drop.

5.0

Overall ScoreThe experience has really been worthwhile.

5.0Scheduling

ON TIME / DEADLINES

They beat their own deadlines.

5.0Cost

Value / within estimates

They’re honest and accurate with the numbers.

4.5Quality

Service & deliverables

5.0NPS

Willing to refer

I have been recommending them. It’s a very good relationship and I’m proud to let the world know that they built our great-looking website.

the review

Skybuds produces truly wireless earbuds. We are a startup scheduled to release a product at the end of the summer.

What is your position?

I am the head of operations within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed help in developing an e-commerce site for the company, which would act as our main sales channel.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It was a collaborative effort with other agencies too, but Big Drop designed and built our website. We also worked with a branding agency which helped with much of the design.

They were very patient with us. When we initially approached Big Drop, we only had a few ideas of what the website would look like. They gave us the best designers and helped in creating it from scratch. We had no e-commerce experience when we first started. We started off with a WordPress site on which bluCommerce was plugged-in. As we learned more about the importance of managing customer data, we requested switching to a Magento platform. Big Drop assigned their best Magento developer, who worked on the backend elements. The design elements, which were made by our branding agency, were also given to Big Drop. They worked on the frontend elements based on that material.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We wanted to work with a New York-based company. We searched Google and looked at the portfolios of the various companies which came up. Big Drop had built very beautiful, artistic websites for many different people, which resonated with us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Sorry, this is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was started in May of 2015. We are now fine-tuning the work and hope to launch the site within a month. We have been in the process of figuring out our marketing approach, and as such, we asked our branding agency to make additional changes. It didn't make sense for Big Drop to reserve some of their development resources for us, given that we had no clear direction for marketing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our website's functionalities are great. I asked a friend who is a Magento developer to review the code, and he told me that it was very solid. We're very happy with Big Drop's work and are excited to launch our website this summer.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

Big Drop was very responsive throughout the project. I knew that I could get in touch with our project manager at any point in time. They used many offshore developers. Ours were in Ukraine, but I never knew the difference in terms of communication.

Any emails sent to Big Drop will have a reply within the hour. They work after business hours, given that the development team is in Ukraine. We were always made to feel like ours was the only project on which Big Drop was working. I was never put on hold when I had an inquiry.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I haven't worked with many web development companies. Even though we were assigned a project manager by Big Drop, if I couldn't get in touch with him, I always had access to their owner. He made sure that everything was handled as fast as possible. I find the fact that Big Drop's owner is actively working on multiple projects and the fact that he stayed in contact with us to be a nice touch.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

Because there has been a bit of a language barrier, we had to be very clear in our emails. A lot can be lost in translation, and I found that Big Drop's team can sometimes take directions literally. They always met us halfway though.

Big Drop designed and developed a media- and information-rich website to attract business and display services. They also provided SEO and logo design.

The Reviewer

1-10 Employees

San Francisco Bay Area

Efrat Kasznik

Founder & President, Foresight Valuation Group

Verified

the reviewer

Founder & President, Foresight Valuation Group

Efrat Kasznik

Management Consulting

1-10 Employees

San Francisco Bay Area

Verified

5.0

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

4.5

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"Working with Big Drop was a very good experience for me in general."

May 13, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

The website resulted in a large number of conversions, regularly appeared on the first page of organic Google keyword searches, and improved sales significantly. Big Drop impressed with their exceptional customer service and high-quality deliverables.

the review

We are an intellectual property strategy and valuation consulting firm.

What is your role at the company?

I am the founder and president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed a new website to attract business and to display media, such as articles and events, and information about services.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

We wanted to get a state-of-the-art, visually appealing website, as well as a new logo.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for web design, logo design, SEO [search engine optimization] strategy, and a professional look and feel.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We looked at online reviews and their portfolio of work, and selected them from three other providers based on their responsiveness to our proposal and their quality of work.

What is the status of this engagement?

It completed about two years ago [2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have received great traction from the work with Big Drop. The percentage of business resulting from people finding us online has increased to more than 50 percent of the business in an industry that is traditionally a referral type. We are showing up on the first page in Google organic searches for key search keywords, resulting in great conversion of people finding the site and calling in or submitting a contact request.

How did Big Drop perform?

They gave us excellent customer service and a great-looking website, as well as a fantastic new logo and very effective SEO.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I don't work with software or web designers on a regular basis. This is a relatively new company and, since I am the founder, I get involved in web design. Working with Big Drop was a very good experience for me in general.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

I would have created fewer pages and made the pages shorter, but that has nothing to do with Big Drop. They followed our instructions and have been very responsive to all our changes.

Big Drop designed and developed a responsive website for a medical dispensary. They provided fixes and improvements as necessary, frequently on short notice.

The Reviewer

11-50 Employees

Boston Metro Area

Operations Manager, Medical Dispensary

Verified

the reviewer

Operations Manager, Medical Dispensary

Health, Wellness, and Fitness

11-50 Employees

Boston Metro Area

Verified

4.5

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

4.0

Cost:

4.5

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"They just go above and beyond your average development company."

May 01, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

Although conflicting work schedules were an initial challenge, Big Drop worked hard to deliver timely fixes and quality work. Their straightforward, useable interface allowed the site to function seamlessly.

the review

I’m an Operations Specialist at a medical marijuana dispensary serving essentially all medically qualified medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts. I handle all of the online communication that comes our way via email, social media and competitor sites. I’ve been in charge of maintaining our entire website through Big Drop. I’ve been sort of the liaison between us and Big Drop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We use and update our website every day; it’s not something we set up and forget about. The biggest reason for our online presence is our menu. We have 10-12 different strains of marijuana and those change daily, and we have over 150 infused products to offer our patients. We update our menu every single night for the next day, so we see upwards of 4,000 site visits daily. We also use our website for our careers page; this is a growing industry and people want to join our team, so we have an active career portal for the company. We also update our site with news and events about what we’re doing as a company through our philanthropy group. But primarily we needed our website to connect patients to resources because the process of being a medical marijuana patient can be incredibly confusing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Big Drop helped design and develop the website. They help with any new requests we might need. I have some background with Wordpress from previous jobs, but working with them has been really great for doing everything from complex tasks to simple things I don’t have time for in my day. I don’t know if other websites are as complicated as ours, but they’ve handled everything really nicely.

We do our daily menu update, but they’re always available if we run into a glitch or if we need more complicated things. They’re mostly backup unless we need to bring them on for larger things like reworking our careers page, which they were able to bang out in a couple of days. Actually, the project manager recently reached out to us to make sure everything was okay, and we were like, “Yeah, everything is working great, the site is perfect!” They’re great about being proactive like that.

How much have you invested with Big Drop?

To be honest, I don’t know. It started with another member of the company who created the vision and started to conversation with them, and I just came in to execute the project. I’ve been the liaison ever since, but I’m not entirely sure about the price range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Big Drop since the end of 2015, so it’s been a little over a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They’ve been great. The greatest feature that they set up for us was Google Analytics. They set up the pages to be easy to read, and in terms of that, they’ve been great. We see about 4,000 visitors to the site, but that number increases monthly. Theoretically, every patient is looking on our site an average of every four days. That’s exciting for us; we’re getting a lot of exposure. We get a lot of members to the site partly because we’re one of the biggest dispensaries in Massachusetts, but we’re also really active with our marketing and everything. I think Big Drop has been a big part of that. They’ve made our site straightforward and easy.

How did BigDrop perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really hard-working. I don’t know if they do this for everyone, but they’ve been extremely helpful for us in emergency situations. Garry was so kind. He gave me his personal cell phone number and said, “If you need anything, give us a call.” I had his team working on the weekend one time.

They just go above and beyond your average development company. Sometimes it’s hard because they work kind of quirky hours, so if we don’t get a request in super early it can be a bummer, but they’ve also been great about emergency situations. Somehow he always finds someone to help us out. Danil, our project manager has been super responsive. He will answer every single email right away. He always wants to set up Zoom meetings to make sure that our visions are on the same page. Work with Danil has been awesome. He has his act together and he’s super organized. Boris, the other manager, is really proactive about making sure things are okay with us.

What did you find most impressive about Big Drop?

I can’t speak highly enough of their ethic and their project managers. Garry’s an awesome dude to work with. They’ve continued to produce work that we’re really happy with. They make sure it looks good on every platform. We can be really particular about that. We’ll say, “It doesn’t look good on a 2014 MacBook Air,” and they’ll dive in and make sure it’s a quality site on that platform in particular.

Are there any areas Big Drop could improve?

I’m not going to lie: in the beginning, we went through several project managers, and they’re no longer with the company. We can have a lot of requests and sometimes we’ve really pushed them to work hard, and in the beginning, the work just wasn’t being produced. Now it’s a complete turnaround. I’ve been so pleased working with our latest project manager. Other than that, the only thing is they typically work from 4 AM to noon, which is fine unless the site crashes later in the day.

That’s when I have to find Garry and he has to scramble to find somebody. It would be better if they had a local developer who could work different hours, or an on-call person for the weekends. But that’s special treatment stuff; I don’t think it’s a huge detriment to their organization. It would just be convenient.

4.5

Overall ScoreNo one can be perfect, but they’ve been wonderful to work with.

4.0Scheduling

ON TIME / DEADLINES

They’ve gotten better recently, but in the beginning it was a little spotty.

4.5Cost

Value / within estimates

I haven’t heard any complaints.

5.0Quality

Service & deliverables

They honed in on our brand and they worked incredibly well to understand what we wanted.

Big Drop used the WordPress platform to design and develop a legal firm's website. They also worked on rebranding and logo design.

The Reviewer

1-10 Employees

Chicago, Illinois

Veronica Ault

Consultant, Salmons Consulting

Verified

the reviewer

Consultant, Salmons Consulting

Veronica Ault

Legal

1-10 Employees

Chicago, Illinois

Verified

4.5

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

4.5

Cost:

4.5

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"Big Drop made sure that we were all pleased in the end."

Apr 11, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

The new website received widely positive feedback from users. Big Drop earned praise for their responsiveness, transparency, and willingness to accommodate a variety of requests. The team asked smart questions and gave thorough explanations.

the review

We are a small team of four full-time employees working as jury consultants. We work within the litigation industry offering mock-trial research, witness preparation, and jury selection in support of civil defense cases. Our main office is in Chicago, and we have offices in Houston and Lexington. We travel to projects nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking to rebrand our logo and website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Big Drop developed our site using WordPress. It was my first time working with the platform, and it proved to be a much better solution than the one we were previously using.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We shopped around and were intrigued by Big Drop. They had won an award for being one of the top 10 design firms in the nation. We liked their website's style and wanted to capture that for ourselves. We work in a bit of a staunch, almost dry industry. We work with patent attorneys and other serious individuals. We do a very serious job, but also want to think that we bring in a fun side to the industry. Big Drop did a great job in capturing that.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was between $20,000-30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March of 2015. The website was launched in May, making it a three-month project. We've since worked on two revisions of the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The experience with Big Drop has been overall very positive. It was a rigorous process, and we've constantly received compliments as a result of it. The site is very responsive.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

We are a small company, and everyone has an opinion. Avoiding the "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario was a challenge for us. Big Drop made sure that we were all pleased in the end.

We had some very specific requests, so Big Drop pushed back on us on a few occasions, letting us know that certain elements wouldn't work and explained why. I liked the consultation part of the process.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

In the design phase, there were a few timing issues, given that some of their team is located in Europe. It wasn't a huge deal, but we were pushing them to get the work done quickly. Their responsiveness was a bit slower than we would have wanted during that phase.

Big Drop designed and developed a manufacturer's pre-sales website to tight budget and schedule requirements.

The Reviewer

11-50 Employees

San Francisco Bay Area

CEO, Camera Technology Firm

Verified

the reviewer

CEO, Camera Technology Firm

Consumer Electronics

11-50 Employees

San Francisco Bay Area

Verified

4.0

Quality:

4.0

Schedule:

3.0

Cost:

4.0

Willing to refer:

n/a

the review

"They were great on iterating quickly and providing solid design ideas."

Apr 06, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

The website resulted helped to support a highly successful pre-sales campaign. Big Drop impressed with their dedicated work ethic, flexible development skills, and willingness to change the project's scope.

the review

We are a technology company based in the United States, and we developed a new type of camera technology.

What is your role at the company?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We wanted them to build a presales website​ for us. The goals were to make the site quickly and affordably.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They provided us with web design and web development services.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

Their owner, Garry [Kanfer], was willing to work fast, lean, and cheap. As a startup with very limited capital, it ​was a great fit for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I believe it was roughly $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

​The project was not 100 percent completed. We had to bring on an internal team to complete the project before launching.​ BigDrop did 80 percent of the work. They were great on iterating quickly and providing solid design ideas and implementing them. We had more issues with the back-end, where we had to change many things before launching out site. I am confident they could have delivered 100 percent of the project if we had more time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The results were great.​ We had a very successful presales campaign.

How did Big Drop perform?

Big Drop performed well.​

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

They worked hard. Garry was always very responsive, and they were willing to expand the scope of the project as needed.​

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

They could have done a better job at the back-end, which we ended up doing ourselves.​

Big Drop developed a modern, user-friendly website that could attract new visitors and optimize conversion rates.

The Reviewer

1-10 Employees

Anchorage, Alaska

President, POS System Provider

Verified

the reviewer

President, POS System Provider

1-10 Employees

Anchorage, Alaska

Verified

4.5

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

4.5

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"Big Drop had a calculated process from start to finish."

Mar 22, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

Conversion rates rose by 15% since launching the new site, and sales saw a marked increase as well. Big Drop earned praise with their solid development techniques, friendly collaboration, and meticulous, timely project management.

Big Drop developed a custom, complex platform that integrated social networking and advertising capabilities, but remained simple for the user. The site also included photo sharing and internal messaging.

The Reviewer

New York City Metro Area

CEO, Car Leasing Service

Verified

the reviewer

CEO, Car Leasing Service

Automotive

New York City Metro Area

Verified

5.0

Quality:

4.5

Schedule:

4.5

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

"Big Drop's accomplishment was impressive from the start."

Mar 15, 2016

The Review

Feedback summary:

The site rose to the number one position in Google for its industry, with initial metrics of between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors per month, and an average of 2 minutes per visit.

the review

Our company is the first 100% free online marketplace for lease transfers. We facilitate transfers for people who are looking to get out of their leases early due to financial or other reasons, but we also provide services for people who are looking to get into short-term leases and find it more convenient to sign on to a six-month up to a one-year lease. We facilitate the meeting of these two types of customers completely free.

What is your position?

I am the chief executive officer and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

The biggest issue we faced was building our platform from scratch. It's a social networking site which has some advertising mixed in. We had to integrate our functionality to work similar to our competitors' sites. Our biggest issue was that there was no template which we could use. Our solution implies a lot of variables and X factors, meaning that we had to build it from scratch.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

I wanted to keep the platform as simple as possible, but given the amount of information that would be required for the site to operate, keeping it simple was a challenge in itself. We had to integrate an internal messaging system between users, an upload system for sharing photos, and so on. The main challenge was making a platform that could sustain a large amount of traffic.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

I googled the top development companies in New York City and came to two options, one of which was Big Drop.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost of the project was between $70,000-100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took two years to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The beta version had a lot of kinks and bugs to be fixed. Any platform that is built from scratch will have these problems. After a six month beta testing and fixing process, we were able to launch the platform.

Big Drop was able to bring our site to the number one position in Google for some of the main keywords in the industry. Before even getting to the top page, we had between 5,000 to 10,000 unique visitors per month. The average time spent on the site for each client was around 2 minutes, which is unheard of on the internet. Figures only grew from there. We had a few fluctuations in terms of Google ratings and traffic, but this is a new site and people are still learning its name.

We're starting to launch a campaign with a major media outlet and our numbers are picking up again, but Big Drop's accomplishment was impressive from the start.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I've worked with a few different companies in the past. Every part of the scope was executed as expected by Big Drop. We had no issues during the process. Like any startup, there will be some bugs and small personal crises. People usually panic during these situations, but Big Drop was very level-headed and handled every situation thrown at them.

The biggest problem we experienced was with our upload function, which kept crashing. They worked on it and, within an hour, the site was up-and-running again. I have nothing but good things to say about Big Drop. They do excellent work.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

If they had more clientele, they'd have a bigger staff. If that was the case, they'd be able to get some things done quicker. I'm not saying that they were slow, but an increase in speed would always be welcomed.